The Great (Veggie Burger) Hunt

I am a woman obsessed. On an endless quest for the perfect veggie burger, and not the store bought kind either.  My teenage years spent as a vegetarian ruined those for me.  Plus, let's not kid ourselves, they're a rather processed food.

I don't want a veggie burger that's trying to be anything like meat.  No offense to regular burgers out there - because I love those too - it's just that I don't see the point of not eating meat but still wishing that it's replacement was vaguely meaty.  My ideal veggie burger would be free of the sog factor and not one bit mushy. It would retain it's ability to stand up to a good bun.  It would be a big vegetable party in my mouth.  

If I had any intelligence my quest would have stopped here.  I would have just put the search on permanent sabbatical and called it a day.  No really, those beet burgers are out of control delicious (if a bit labor intensive) and I would happily eat them forever.  But no.  I still give into the draw of each new veggie burger recipe I come across, hoping and praying that this next one will be "the one".  Alas, most are not and I'm left disappointed.

This burger though, it has great potential.  It's got the flavor down and it's not too fussy to make.  Black beans and quinoa are a great pair.  The beans kinda glue the patty together and the nutty flavor of the quinoa makes for a hearty flavor.  Studded throughout with bits of roasted red pepper and cilantro and enhanced with earthy spiced like cumin and paprika, this veggie burger was about this close to perfect.  Where it falls short is in the texture department.  It still mushes out the sides of the bun, it still crumbles if not perfectly balanced when stacked with ingredients.

However, I'm fairly confident that this is a correctable problem.  Adding a few eggs to the mixture before chilling would probably go a long way towards helping this patty retain a sturdy shape.  (I was hoping the addition of panko crumbs and the chilling before cooking would be the golden ticket, but you know, live and learn.)  I kept the preparation pretty standard - lettuce, tomato, red onion, mayonnaise and a good bun - and I'd recommend the same to you.  There's already a lot going on in there, no need to pile much more on.

And if you try them with eggs?  Please report back.  The weather is warming up and I see the need for veggie burgers in my life greatly increasing.


Quinoa and Black Bean Burgers

There are two parts here I know you'll be tempted to skip, but please don't.   The first is chilling the mixture in the fridge for about an hour.  The second is finishing them off in the oven.  The thing about veggie burgers is that they tend to be a little too moist and squishy in the center and that time in the fridge help the panko crumbs suck up excess moisture and the extra 20 minutes in the oven helps them firm up. That being said, mine still wanted very badly to crumble and fall apart (but not nearly as bas as when I didn't bake them!), so I think the addition of 2 or so eggs to the mixture would have really helped.

8 veggie burgers

1- 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups cooked quinoa
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 roasted red bell pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1.4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 cup cilantro leaves, loosely packed


In a medium sized pan heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Sautee shallots just until translucent (1-2 minutes), then add garlic and sautee about 30 seconds more. Toss in the roasted red bell pepper and turn off the heat.

Next, in a food processor, add the beans, sauteed shallot mixture, cumin, smoked paprika, and good pinch of salt and pepper. Pulse until just combined. Add the cooked quinoa and cilantro and again pulse until combined and cilantro has been chopped up a bit. Remove to bowl, add panko crumbs and stir. Let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Form mixtures into palm-sized or slightly larger burger patties, you should get about 8.

Heat remaining oil in the same pan you cooked the shallots in. Sear each patty for about 3-4 minutes on each side until nice and browned. Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Assemble as you like and eat!

Jam and Oats

There is a trend among my favorite-est cookies; they're mainly of the oatmeal variety.  I like them chewy and studded with raisins and toasted walnuts.  I adore them during the holidays, spread out thinly and lace-like and perfumed with shredded coconut.  I even love them if there's chocolate chips instead of raisins, but not quite as much.

I think what gets me about oatmeal cookies, of the non-chocolate chip variety, is that they're typically less sweet.  Or else the sweet is balanced out by the hearty chew of the oatmeal.  Either way, I'm into it.

These guys, plopped onto well-loved cookie sheets, thumbprints pressed into their centers to be filled with a dollop of jam?  I love them too.  The soft oatmeal cookie is warmed with the slightest hint of cinnamon and brightened with a fruity center.  But wait!  There is something even better here.  This recipe is really just a jumping off point, for you to get creative with.  I see stone fruit preserves and cardamom scented cookies.  Raspberry jam and lemony oatmeal bases.  Peach and ginger.  I kept it pretty safe with the blackberry and cinnamon combo (a winning combination to be sure!), but that's only because it's what I had around.

Bonus points for whipping up recipes with pantry staples.




Oatmeal Jammys
recipe from The Treats Truck Baking Book

The possibilities with these cookies are endless. Just swap out equal quantities of the dried spices and preserves and create all new cookies.  Cardamom, cinnamon, ground ginger all would be fantastic, as would a little freshly grated lemon zest.  Any jam or preserve will do, but i would probably stay away from jelly.  A little texture does these cookies good.

About 2 dozen cookies
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
jams or preserves


Preheat oven to 350°. Grease or line baking sheets.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing until fully incorporated. Mix in oats.  Dough will be a bit sticky, but not unmanageably so.

Scoop dough onto prepared pans using a spoon and place them about 2 inches apart. Using your thumb, make a hollow in each cookie. Dipping your thumb in warm water beforehand will help keep the dough from sticking.  Fill each hollow with jam (or preserves).

Bake 12-14 minutes, until cookies are fully baked and the edges are golden.

Spring Green

Have you ever had fresh broccoli?  Like picked just hours before eating, fresh?  Oh man, it's a game changer.  How anyone ever used the word bitter to describe its taste will totally escape you when you eat it that fresh.  It's sweet and mild and the "green" flavor is incredibly mellow.  This stuff ruins your commercial grocery store broccoli - and that's a good thing.

After working at a farmer's market, I take anyone's declaration that they don't care for a certain food (more specifically vegetables and fruits) as a personal challenge.  I'm convinced that they need only to try it fresh, sold to them by the same hands that grew and harvested that food to change their minds and make them a believer.  Yep, I'm that person.

You know who else I am?  I'm the one who, when you invite me over for dinner, or a potluck, or insert event here where there is this food, I bring the salad.  Or some vegetable.  I always show up with the "healthy" dish, it never fails.  I don't mean it as a commentary on what you're serving and I'm certainly not judging you (I like you! We're friends!  Your food is probably good too!), it's just that I suffer from crippling anxiety that there will be no vegetables for me to eat.

This salad of broccoli and quinoa is just the kind of dish you'd expect me to show up with for a few reasons.  First, it's just so dang pretty when it's plated.  When you top it all off with toasted sliced almonds, creamy avocado pieces and crumbled feta, it dosen't look like you're trying to cram some sort of health food down people's throats.  Second, it packs quite the vegetable punch.  Sure you can see the sweet little broccoli florets tucked in there, but every single bit of this quinoa is coated in a broccoli pesto that is to die for.  Using the freshest broccoli and just barely steaming it keep it's sweet quality intact and ensures there's no bitter taste or sulfurous smell.  What's that you say?  You don't like broccoli?  We'll see about that...


Double Broccoli Quinoa
Adapted from 101cookbooks

This is certainly a fine dish for leftovers or making ahead, but you're best off storing the elements (the quinoa, the broccoli pesto, the toppings) separately and mixing just before serving. Also, as is frequently the case with raw garlic in dishes, the longer the pesto sits, the more potent the garlic flavor gets. If the idea of a strong garlic flavor is off putting to you (or you're planning on bringing the leftovers to work for lunch) consider using less garlic, or roasted garlic in it's place could be nice too.

4-6 servings

3 cups cooked quinoa*
5 cups raw broccoli, cut into small florets and stems
3 medium garlic cloves
2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/3 cup freshly grated Grana Padano
salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup milk
crumbled feta
sliced avocado

*To cook quinoa: rinse one cup of dry quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa, two cups of water, and a few big pinches of salt until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

In a big pot just barely steam the broccoli florets for 1 minute. They should turn bright green, but remain crisp and sweet. Transfer the broccoli to a strainer and run under cold water until it stops cooking. Set aside.

To make the broccoli pesto puree two cups of the cooked broccoli, the garlic, 1/2 cup of the almonds, Parmesan, salt, lemon juice and red pepper flakes in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and milk and pulse until smooth.

Just before serving, toss the quinoa and remaining broccoli florets with the broccoli pesto. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Turn out onto a serving platter and top with the remaining almonds, some sliced avocado and crumbled feta cheese.

Wine and Dine

Things to eat when it's blustery and rainy out:  this red wine spaghetti. 

Isn't it pretty?  That tangle of deep mauve noodles on the plate, punctuated with bright flecks of parsley?  Nestled in that mess are crunchy pieces of toasted walnuts, red pepper flakes and just softened bits of fresh garlic too.  But that spaghetti, actually cooked in red wine - total revelation.  It picks up a lot of earthiness and a little fruitiness and all of that brings out all the natural nuttiness of the pasta.

This is the kind of pasta you would serve friends that looks and sounds way fancier than it actually is.  Throw a little roasted broccolini, or my new favorite broccoli di cicco, on that plate and you've got quite the elegant meal.  Not that elegance is exclusively for sharing with friends or that this dinner isn't perfectly appropriate for say, a Wednesday night dinner either.  Because that's just how this plate went down.  On  a weeknight.  Just D and I.  Paired up with what remained of the bottle of red wine.

But let me not throw you out into the world of cooking pasta in red wine without a few ground rules.  You must, I mean must, use a wine that you would totally drink.  Think about it.  The pasta will be soaking up this liquid so whatever flavor the wine has, it's sure to impart some of that to the finished dish. Something in the $10 range.  Something like Zinfandel or Merlot - think less dry, more jammy.  Bonus if you only make a half recipe like I did, because then you have the other half of the bottle to enjoy with dinner.  Also, don't try to fancy this up and use fresh pasta.  It's cooking time is too brief for the red wine to do it's magic.  Just buy a good quality brand of dry pasta.  Lastly, this is a really simple recipe where each ingredient shares in the spotlight, so you know, use the good quality stuff.

Red Wine Spaghetti with Walnuts
Adapted from Food and Wine

A few key things with this recipe. As with most sauceless pastas, this was best when eaten immediately after making, the leftovers just didn't pop. Also, use a wine you would drink. It dosen't have to be fancy, something in the $10 range maybe. Since the pasta soaks up a considerable amount of the wine, it's flavor profile will obviously be contributing to the final dish. I used a Zinfandel, but I think a Merlot could work here too. And if you like whole wheat pastas, a good quality brand could translate well here adding something a little more nutty and toothsome.

4-6 servings

5 cups water
3 1/4 cups dry red wine
Salt
3/4 pound dry spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
a big handful of walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup grated Grana Padano cheese, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper

In a saucepan, combine the water with 3 cups of the wine and a large pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring, until al dente. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid.

In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the garlic and red pepper and season with salt.Cook over moderate heat for 1 minute. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of wine and the reserved cooking liquid and bring to a simmer. Stir in the pasta and cook until the liquid is nearly absorbed, 2 minutes. Add the parsley, nuts, the 1/2 cup of cheese and the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and toss. Season the pasta with salt and pepper and serve, passing grated cheese at the table.

Transforming Colors

My mind must be somewhere else.  Dreaming up vacations, buried in books, bogged down in studying for midterms.  It's certainly nowhere near the kitchen.

Ridiculous things have transpired there, things that I know better than to do.  Like cooking red cabbage in a cast iron skillet.  I've been so into using mine for everything lately; for perfectly crusty grilled cheese, for big puffy german pancakes or a good deeply golden sauté of veggies, that I absentmindedly tossed some red cabbage in there without thinking.  Until about 30 seconds later when bits of blue started popping up. Fun if you're doing a science experiment, or fancy yourself a Dr. Seuss inspired meal, but I'm not too into eating unnaturally blue foods so I quickly grabbed the hot skillet and transfered it all over to a non-reactive cooking vessel.  Doh!

Then the other day I made some turnip and potato pancakes.  Just grated up the white starchy roots, mixed it with an egg, some flour and chopped green onions and got to frying (in my cast iron skillet, naturally).  But the batch was bigger than I anticipated and I just wanted to eat dinner so I only fried up about half and told myself to cook the rest up later.  Except, do you know what happens to raw grated potatoes when you just let them sit out?  They oxidize.  They turn black.  People, I know this.  I've fished out bits of oxidized grated potatoes from my drain before that look more like a hairball or something dead.  It's gross.  But set them aside I did, only to find an unappealing grey mixture left in the bowl.  These have not been my finest hours.

All things considered, a green smoothie doesn't seem so out of place then.  Except this was no accident.  And green smoothies/juices are everywhere these days.  This one is a particularly fine example with the addition of an orange and a frozen banana, and coconut water if you're into that sort of thing.  I packed in a bunch of spinach and a squeeze of lemon juice and let my (crappy) blender do the work.  It's bright and tasty and we pretty much drank it every day for a week until the giant bag of spinach I got from Mariquita Farms ran out.

Black potatoes?  Blue cabbage?  Whatever, I have my green smoothie to comfort me.

Greensicle Smoothie
Adapted from Puree Juice Bar via Tasting Table

I've given you the recipe using spinach, but kale (as it was originally written) and baby chard work just as well. I increased the amount of green from 1/2 cup to 3 - 4 cups because it seemed like so little, and putting more in hardly changes the flavor. If you use all spinach the banana and sweetness of the orange really come through. In the batch that I made with half spinach and half baby chard, I started to get hints of vegetable. Adjust according to taste.

2 (16oz) drinks
3 - 4 cups chopped spinach
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 oranges, segmented and chopped
1 frozen banana, cut into chunks
1 cup coconut water

Put all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.